Kodansha Moves to Random House-- Not Del Rey

There has been a lot of coverage related to TOKYOPOP's announcement that Kodansha was ending relations with them, but the biggest piece of news comes from ICv2. ICv2 confirmed this morning that Kodansha will be publishing titles to be distributed through Random House, separately from Del Rey Manga (which Random House will, of course, continue to distribute).

Which means on the one hand that all those titles in limbo from Tpop (see Deb Aoki's list), at least for the most popular of them-- Beck, GetBackers, and Initial D, I'd think. I'm sure we'll hear more details on the matter in the future...although when, I can't say, as Kodansha has been very quiet about the whole matter since it was first rumored back in June 2008.

Another piece you should read is Simon Jones' at Icarus Comics, which offers a lot of context and a bit of speculation-- some of which has already been proven true, such as that Tpop was prepared for this (as we learned was true in my own interview).